5 Effective Routes to Employee Motivation

As a business owner, staying on task and ahead of schedule will directly determine whether your company will sink or swim. One of the biggest problems within companies today is small inconsistencies that turn into large problems in the future. Once they get to that point they are even harder to fix because no one really remembers where the problem started in the first place. Here are 5 effective routes to employee motivation which will help you keep your employees motivated and honest with their work on a daily basis.

1. Give constructive criticism, but don’t run them into the ground

Nine times out of 10 employees will shy away from you and try avoiding confrontation at all costs, if something has gone wrong, even if it hurts the company. It has been proven that good support to people who do something wrong has an overall better effect that the opposite.

Make it clear that mistakes are good because they are learning experiences. So how can we avoid doing the same thing next time? What can we learn?

Starting or ending the statement with positive feedback will almost guarantee that the employee will accept the criticism and work hard to overcome the issue. 

2. Show them the light at the end of the tunnel

Show employees what goal you are all working towards. That big hairy audacious goal. It gives them something to be vested in.

Then make sure you reward employees that hit their own goals. If you do not have extra money for incentives give your employees something they can be proud of. For example you could have an employee recognition program, such as employee of the month, which can help office morale and motivate employees to do better work.

3. Feed the hungry

People love free food. For instance, it might be easier to rally the troops for that 2:30 p.m. meeting if they know there will be free cookies and coffee available!

Feed the hungry doesn’t just mean food alone though, offering good benefits is a great way to ensure that your employees are happy and well taken care of. That’s the real thing they want, to feel like their company cares about them.

4. Change things up

Be spontaneous and change things up around the office. Instead of having your weekly meeting in the small boring office, try having it outside or renting out a hotel suite once a month. Or let them work from home, after all you should just care they are delivering for you, not when and where they do the work. Having flexibility is really helpful for employee motivation. 

5. Let them be heard

If you really want your company to thrive, let your employees know that what they do has a direct impact on the outcome of something major. Give them something to work for and be proud of. There are many ways of doing this, including having a meeting where they give suggestions on different topics to better help or change the company.

Also, sitting an employee down that may be struggling more than the others and explaining to them the overall importance of that person’s job may help boost their self-motivation. Showing that their job can directly affect the lives of others is a good motivator that will help them to work harder.

Whether you own your own small business or manage a company with 10,000 employees, if they do not perform the way they should, nothing will get done. Use these 5 tips to help you with your employee motivation. 

Source: business-achievers.com